Director's Report for May 2012

Evergreen starts – Children’s programs expand – Summer Program in June

Circulation
Circulation through May 25th was 3,334, (I have not yet been able to get circulation information from Evergreen.)  If we extrapolate a total for May based on the first 25 days, the total for May would be 4,134.  This is higher than last month (8.8% increase), and a tiny bit lower than our average for May (1.2% decrease). 
466 interlibrary loan holds were placed.
Our laptops were checked out 15 times in May, our Nook e-readers circulated 8 times, and our videogames had 43 circulations.

Digital Content Use
BYKI: In May, 4 users accessed byki for a total of 9.3 hours.  Our top languages were English for Spanish speakers and German.
Wowbrary: 1 new user signed up for Wowbrary, for a total of 111 active subscribers.
Overdrive: eBook circulation to Upton patrons: 134, eAudio circulations: 41. 

New Patron Registrations
17 new patrons registered in May
Collection Development
We added approximately 90 items to our collection in May.
Passport Applications processed in May: 13

Programs
Library book group: 8 people met on May 30th.
Senior book group: 6 people met on May 8th.
Thursday storytime averaged 6 children per session for 10 sessions.
TinyTots lapsit averaged 5 children per session for 3 sessions. 
Library Table: 4 visits, averaged 10 patrons and 25 items.
Lego Days: averaged 6 children per session for 5 sessions.

Special Events
Baby sign language workshop: 3 children and 3 adults attended on May 19th.
3rd Grade Field Trip: 106 students toured the library on May 23rd and 30th.

Upcoming Events in June
Summer reading registration starts June 19th.
Babysitter Training class 9:00-3:30, Mon June 25th
Little Red Wagon children’s theatre, 6:00pm, Wed June 27th, Nipmuc HS

Plans for Next Month
1) Start Summer Reading Program
2) Improve Evergreen functions
3) Catalog Materials backlog

Summer Reading Program
The summer program flyer and schedule is complete, and we’ll be packing the registration bags in the next few weeks to be ready for registration to start June 19th.
In addition to the Treasure Chest prizes and 4 special events through the summer, we’ll be offering the following programs:
Ages 0-3 – Tinytots storytime session, each Friday from July 13th through August 31st
Ages 3-6 – Preschool storytime each Thursday at 10:30 and 1:30
Ages 6-12 – Magic Treehouse book group, three sessions in July and August
Ages 12-18 – Summer Reading study group on three Tuesdays in July

Evergreen Library System
As of May 29th, we have been live on the new Evergreen library system.
Overall, I am happy with the transition.  It wasn’t perfect, and we’ve been dealing with various glitches over the last week, but it could have gone much worse.  Nothing fundamental broke, no information was lost, and we’ve been able to perform basic library services without interruption.

There are still some functions I haven’t been able to figure out yet, such as accessing circulation reports, and we still have a lot of tweaking to adjust circulation procedures to the new system.

The biggest challenge is currently the slow response time of the system, which is making many functions, especially placing holds and cataloging new items take much longer than they used to, in some cases 4-5 times as long.  I am going to give CWMARS another week or so to deal with other pressing issues, then I will contact them about improving our response time.

The most common concern from patrons has been trouble accessing their accounts on the new web catalog, so far we’ve been able to resolve these issues by resetting their username and password.

Library staff have responded well to the challenge of learning the new system.  Evergreen presents a lot more information and choices on the staff interface, and all our staff have managed to learn the new system and cope with changing procedures on a daily basis as we adapt to the new system.

I am excited about the new opportunities that Evergreen presents.  We have a lot of flexibility and customization options that were not available in Millenium.  The web catalog has new search options that should allow us to meet patrons’ needs better, and I am also excited about the customizable receipts that can be printed.  We’ve already adapted our “hold slips” to make them easier to use, and we also have the potential to advertise programs or include messages on our “date due” slips.